Mystery Song
by arisaswordheart
Summary: The mystery of the disappearance of Stacey Dale. Noone knows what happened to her, only that she disappeared 10 years ago. But now new evidence has come up and Detective Jordan just had to dig. But it's leading the detective ... straight to the Cullens.


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Mystery Song

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CHAPTER 1 – MISSING PERSONS REPORT

**Note:** All places are fictional, apart from Forks, although they may bear similarities to locations in San Francisco – which is a funny and actually real coincidence.

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**Author's Note:** For now, this is a test trial to see if anyone is interested in the story. Please keep in mind this chapter will be subject to change, therefore, from editing or otherwise.

This story is complex and long, so be patient if you will.

**Disclaimer:** I own the story, but not Twilight. I think.

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_Afternoon, December 8__th__ 2005_

_5:36PM_

Detective Jordan Rothwell studied the Missing Persons report spread out in front of him as he sat as his desk in the darkening Newarea Police Department. A cold unsolved case, it had been closed five years into the investigation, and was now going to be reopened as, perhaps for the first time, there was sufficient evidence to find out either where Stacey Dale had disappeared to or who killed her.

Spreading the documents further across the table, he accessed the case. He hadn't been assigned to this the first time and wasn't this time, but nothing got him like a good mystery and there weren't any pressing cases needing his attention at the moment. He'd run into the case one sleepless night going through files in the old storeroom. As far as he could tell from all he had read, the Cullen family who moved away suddenly under what he thought to be suspicious circumstances was the only real link to the case.

Jordan pulled out another file from the stack next to his table in the station and surveyed it. There were no real details of the Cullen family as such, other than vague facts gleaned from the members of the community and the local high school and records they had taken from the school. They were a secluded, well-mannered family, who were kind, but kept to themselves, the report continued. All the Cullens had perfect grades and no criminal record.

From the notes in the file, the Cullen family comprised of the father, Carlisle Cullen, the mother, Esme Cullen and five children: Emmett Cullen, Alice Cullen and twins Rosalie and Jasper Hale and Edward Cullen. They had moved away a month after Stacey's disappearance after moving there for a full year. It was understood the Cullen/Hale family enjoyed going out camping often and their moving had seemed reasonable – it was time to move on – and the family had told the community that Dr Carlisle Cullen had accepted a transfer to another city. But as it was, they were the only link to the case as of yet that could not be quite ruled out.

Jordan put down the file and scratched his head. That fateful night the Cullens had indeed returned to the city in the afternoon and this had been confirmed by records and video but the family had no real alibi other then themselves that they were all inside the house at the time of the crime. It was always questionable, family alibis, as unpredictable as was guessing if their intent was to be honest or to protect their family.

Investigating the Cullen family had yielded some results though. When he phoned up the police station in the area where they were _supposed_ to have moved, he hadn't gotten anything out of the officer there other than an insistence the officer had never heard the name and they were not in their records. Of course, there were all sorts of reasons why the officer who answered may not have known the Doctor and if he were a law-abiding citizen he probably wouldn't have been in police records, but he didn't think this was all just coincidence. Curiouser and curiouser.

Flicking to the next tab in the file, he looked at the school photo taken the year Stacey Dale had disappeared. Photo day had been a week prior the day she had arrived but the school photos had been included in the report as a good way at looking over the Cullen family. As Jordan flipped through the photos he accessed they all had vaguely the same features, pale skin, gold coloured eyes and fine features.

He needed to think out of the boundaries. It was why he had clawed his way up this far, his ability to see things where people didn't, to pick up clues which people dismissed. He frowned in thought.

If the details hadn't been there, he had to wonder if the Cullen children were _all_ related somehow. From the report, the children were all adopted, though the mother, Esme, was aunt to the Hale twins. So it should have been that they would be the only people to resemble each other, yet they weren't. Not to mention from the descriptions of the parents, they had similar features too. Was everyone in the family related somehow? A case of incest? Was any of it significant? Related how?

"Think, think." He muttered to himself as he closed his eyes and mentally turned over the information.

Jordan shook his head and sighed, putting the thoughts aside to mull over later as he flipped over the report to the Dale family. The Dales had been in town a matter of days when Miss Dale had disappeared. She had just transferred to the local school and gotten a job at the local supermarket – it sounded like she was preparing for a promising future, not to run away, so running away was out of the question, at least, as jotted down from the previous investigation. Her bag had also been left behind, who would run away without their bag?

Stacey had disappeared right after her shift – a night one where she had been closing up shop with the manager before making her way to the bus stop – and not been seen since. The video footage they had taken both from the supermarket and cheap amateur camera at the second hand store across the road had come up with nothing.

She had walked out and stood on the opposite side on the street to wait for the bus, dropping her bag on the pavement so as to not have to carry it. She had seemed to notice something, taken a few steps, then vanished out of the frame.

People examining the video hadn't understood the seemingly sudden vanish, but allowed that the cameras and the tape were quite low resolution and had slow capture speed which could have had something to do with it. That left a question though: what had Stacey seen that made her get up and take a few steps?

There were a few possibilities of course. It would have not been something that scared her if she stepped forward, so either someone that she knew, something she recognized, or something or someone that merely caught her attention, although that didn't really rule out that it could have been someone or something that could scare her. Still based on the knowledge that Stacey had been there for a matter of days and noone was reported to have been in the area, it would have to have been an object which was recognized or caught her attention.

Still, any sweeps of the area conducted showed no objects which could have caught her interest. The only thing that could have caught her attention would be someone or an animal.

If there had truly been noone in the area, then the theory that made most sense would be an animal attack. But the area was relatively safe, no house pet big enough for an attack like that and no other wild animal venturing into town in that fashion. Also, if it were an animal attack, a body would have been found and not simply vanished. It may turn up elsewhere but it would eventually turn up all the while. It was an impossible theory and wouldn't explain how the body had been gone for this entire time.

The obvious path to follow was an abduction and murder, of course, and Jordan had a feeling that this was the path to follow. He had learnt to trust his instincts a long time ago and it made the most sense and fit in most with the evidence – the only missing factor was motive, but then again, he'd heard of random acts of violence. If Stacey had seen an object which arrested her attention, she possibly wouldn't have seen the person who snatched her away, or it would have been the method used to snatch her away without her putting up a fight prior.

But with this, the abductor would have needed a motive for snatching the girl. It could have been someone from her old school, old neighbourhood, but it had been determined during the investigation Miss Dale wouldn't given anyone a reason to hate her. She had her group of friends and no boyfriend, there were no animosity between her and any of the students. It had also ruled out the idea that she was running away with her boyfriend, or her boyfriend had returned in anger to claim her. What was missing, was a motive to her disappearance, and a motive for her possible death, especially after so many years and considering the fact that she hadn't been spotted since the disappearance. Assuming that Miss Dale was dead and fitting in with the suspicion of the Cullen family, what could have the motives of the Cullen family been?

None of course, was the obvious answer. How could they have a motive to kill her if they barely knew her? They had no connection with her and hadn't even been in town the first two days the Dales had arrived in town, from their statements and video confirmation of their leaving town. When questioned, noone from the Dale's previous town nor the Dales themselves recognized the name Cullen.

Jordan shook his head and closed all the files, slipping them back in the case. He needed more information. He wasn't ready to voice his hunch over the Cullen family until he could find more evidence to support. There was the new information to look over, but Jordan needed more background first before he could analyse the new information.

And what better way to get more information than a housecall?

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Jordan stopped outside the large house that had once been home to the Cullen family. They'd sold it to a family by the name of Mayme. He shifted the gear into Park and got out of the car, locking it, and headed up the stairs. He knocked on the door and a minute later, the lock clicked and a short woman with short mousy brown hair blinked up at him.

"Mrs Mayme? I'm Detective Jordan Rothwell," Jordan introduced himself, flashing his badge, "I need to ask you a few questions about the previous owner of this house. I realize it was a while ago, but anything you remember will be of help."

"I.. Sure." The woman – Mrs Meredith Mayme – replied. "I can't tell you much though."

"I assure you, Mrs Mayme, anything you can give us will be of great help. We're gathering further information for a Missing Persons case from a decade ago. We would be glad of your cooperation."

Meredith Mayme's expression showed obvious confusion and doubt over gathering evidence for so old a case but agreed. "I – Of course, come through please," Meredith showed him into the living room, politely offered him a chair and sat down herself.

"If there is anything you could tell me at all. Take your time."

"Well, I remember the last family here were the Cullens, but your probably know that. They moved off somewhere. Something about a transfer, I recall."

"Yes, we have that noted in our files. Were there any specific things you noticed about the house when you moved in?"

"Well, no – "

"Think very carefully please, Mrs Mayme. Try to think back to when you inspected the house or bought it. Were there any things which particularly stood out to you?"

Meredith paused before she closed her eyes in thought. A few minutes passed. Her brow furrowed slightly in thought, she struck him as one of those people who worked everyday to get rid of such wrinkles.

"Not as such, I remember thinking to kitchen was very nice – very new, I remember thinking, just like it was just put in, but I heard that Mrs Cullen enjoyed to renovate. Everything looked very new and very clean. Well, I enjoyed having all that state of the art stuff to use, and was pleased that there hadn't been much damage from use." She semi-shrugged.

"I see," Jordan nodded and jotted the full comment down in his book. Nothing really new, was it? Mrs Cullen had enjoyed to renovate. Possible hiding place of a body – in walls? Also, if she liked to renovate, would it require muscle? She, or her helper, would have to be strong enough to break down walls and install cupboards and the like. He jotted it all down with his thoughts and turned back to Meredith. "Anything else?"

Meredith opened her eyes. "Apart from the kitchen, I don't remember anything else, Detective. I remember thinking the whole house was very clean and bright and new, and that's pretty much it."

"Thank you." Jordan said with a slight smile as he jotted this once again into the notebook for good measure and slipped it back into his leather jacket. "You have been a great help, Ma'm." He reached into another pocket and pulled out a business card. "If you remember anything at all, we would be very grateful if you would give us a call."

"Certainly." Meredith replied as Jordan stood up and crisply, also got to her feet.

"Well, goodnight Mrs Mayme. Thank you, once again, for your help." He stepped outside with an inclination of his head and frowned as he came out from the awning and the first drops of rain hit him. He dashed to his car to avoid the rain even as the water simply beaded on the leather of his jacket.

Unlocking his car, he shook off the drops of rain and climbed in quickly, slamming the door and started the car, turning on the windscreen wipers before turning the car around and driving down the narrow driveway carefully. Was anything he had just gotten from the woman significant? Jordan knew he had to take all the information he got at face value, no matter how insignificant it might seem. It would bear further thinking to figure out what clues the woman hadn't intended to say.

Meanwhile though, Jordan wondered if he would need to get out a team to search the area around the house as good measure. Searches had been made years ago all through town after Stacey's disappearance, but there was always a good chance something was missed or overlooked.

He didn't know. Jordan turned the wheel and went around the last corner, pulling up in front of the real estate which had been used to facilitate the sale of the house. Turning up the collar of his leather jacket as he got out of the car, he ran through the rain to the door, and entered the real estate.

"Can I help you?" A platinum blonde lady at the desk asked him as he came through the door, dripping onto the carpet. He hoped she didn't mind.

"I'm Detective Jordan Rothwell," Jordan announced once again and flashed his badge, "I need to ask you a few questions on the Cullen family who used your service to sell their house a few years ago. It won't take much of your time."

"I'm sorry sir, but the privacy of our clients is paramount. Do you have a warrant –"

"This isn't about personal details; I want someone's assessment of the family, their behaviours, and their personalities." He clarified, "Is the salesperson still working here?"

The blonde secretary hesitated still, her gaze suspicious, then sighed and flipped a few pages through a book. "Name of client and date?"

"Cullen family. Three years ago."

The secretary glared at him and turned instead to her computer, typing for a few moments, clicking as she selected options on the screen he couldn't see and scrolled down no doubt a list of returned data.

"Cullen family, sold a house on the edge of town around three years ago. You'll want salesman Clayton Hardwin. He retired last month and lives three blocks from here. I can give you a phone number and an address as well as a mobile phone number."

Jordon nodded. "Thank you." He jotted all the information down in his notebook and slipped it away before continuing, "Do you happen to have any ads about the house from the time they were selling, or old copies of catalogues? Old photos?"

"We would probably have a few advertisements, window placement ones, mostly, and possibly a few photographs on file." The secretary replied politely.

Jordan nodded, "If I could please have a copy of those."

The secretary nodded and went to a line of cupboards along one wall, heading to a cupboard marked A-D and rifling through before pulling out a file and returning to him with it. She opened it and pulled out a few sheets of paper.

"These are the ads for the house. There's a page at the back with four photos, mainly of the inside of the house. These were spares, most likely." She placed the file on her desk. "Anything else, Detective?"

He noticed the slight note of sarcasm in her tone. "Nothing. Thank you for your time." He nodded to her once, folded the papers and slipped them in his pocket, and stepped out once again into the rain. He was back in his car and ready to pay a visit to Former Salesman Clayton Hardwin when his cell phone rang.

Jordan pulled it out of his pocket and flipped it open. "Rothwell."

"Jordan, there's a case down by Elwood Street, possibly could have been an armed robber. Someone came up to stop him and they got shot. You better get up here." His partner, Maxine Peyton, voiced urgently in his ear.

"I'm down at the real estate, I'll be there in approximately twenty minutes."

"Make it ten, put the siren on. What are you doing down there? I hope you're not planning to move. Anyway, get up here pronto!"

Jordan smiled, "Yes, mother." And hung up. The Missing Persons case would have to wait for a while. Twisting the wheel, he turned in the opposite direction he wanted to be going to Elwood Street, driving faster than was legally allowed to get to the crime scene quickly. Pulling up, he parked his car and got out into the thankfully lessening rain.

"What's up?" Jordan asked his partner.

"Possible armed robber was coming up the street, towards the market," Maxine pointed to the supermarket across the road. "Our hero, I suppose, or fool, Hewett Beyward thought he could take him down, or thought he was doing a good thing and went up to him. Got himself shot for the trouble."

"C'mon Max, he meant well."

"He made a lot more trouble for us though. He could have just called the police and we'd be there within two minutes."

"There might not have been two minutes."

"There certainly _was_ two minutes if he got shot on the other side of the road from the supermarket!"

"Anyone ever told you you're severe?" Jordan asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Sure, not that I care."

"I suppose you wouldn't. Anyway, where's our injured hero?"

"Carted away in the ambulance, too much blood loss from a shoulder wound. Bullet went clean through and embedded in wall there," she pointed to a hole in the wall which one forensics member was photographing while maneuvering around a roped off area, "He'll need to be patched up before we can talk to him about his heroic or foolish streak. We gleaned what we could from passers-by in about a 20 metre radius. People ran when the gun went off – a common reaction."

"And where did the perp go?"

"_That_ is what we're trying to find out." Maxine crossed over to the roped off section and ducked under it to move to a small irregular shaped puddle of dark red liquid on the floor Jordan knew was blood after they both stepped over to the pavement and slipped on shoe covers. "Hot search done in the area, perpetrator has disappeared, cold search done for witnesses, no new information. Beyward was shot here, footprints dried too quickly for us to tell which direction, and mud was churned up by escaping bystanders. The rain also washed away too much for us to see anything. You see anything new?"

Jordan was known for his good insight in the station. He bent down and squinted at the concrete floor, careful not to walk too much on everything and contaminate the evidence. He scanned the ground.

"What's that?"

"What?"

"_That._" Jordan pointed to a smear. "Mud? Blood? Oh that rhymes."

Maxine rolled her eyes then turned her attention back to the smear. "Mud, maybe."

Jordan crawled forward and continued to look. "Maybe. I see another smear here," he pointed, "Walking over muddy ground would leave mud on shoes. There are other footprints here, but these look to be the newest and also seem to be in the right direction." He knelt again to examine. "And that means he went … that way, possibly." He frowned out into the darkness.

"That direction?" Maxine asked, her eyes following the trail before also heading out into the dark.

"It might be a long shot, but it seems legitimate. Did anyone come close to the victim?"

"One person. He rang the police and came to check for a pulse."

"Would you ask him if he went in this direction? If it's the perp's footprint, we need to get a lift of it, work out shoe size, what he was wearing." Not that it would be any good if they didn't have a suspect first.

Jordan mused as Maxine went off to get another statement. A manhunt, or so it was termed, needed to be organised. Maybe he could secure himself a look for the body of Stacey Dale while on this case. Why not? It went as the saying goes, 'hit two birds with one stone'. Since the search was happening, all the agents would be on high alert and if there was anything to be found, it would probably be found, whether or not it had anything to do with this case. Whether it would be dismissed was the problem.

First though, he had to do the rudimentary preparation.

Jordan called up an officer. "Check the nearest hotels and motels for anyone checked in recently, check who has entered town today and search up the local delinquents. Also, notify the search teams and tell them to meet here pronto." The officer nodded and left.

The search teams met him and Maxine outside the supermarket ten minutes later. Maxine had confirmed the man gone to help the victim had not gone in the direction shown by the prints, meaning it had a extremely high chance of being the perpetrator's footprints.

Jordan split the assembled searchers into small groups and sent a few search teams out of the town to the north, south east and west; searching all areas around the town up until a while doing checks of residences and unoccupied structures, and the other search teams to do a quick search within town. All were given a description gathered from all the witnesses – a tall male, dressed mostly in black, armed with a gun, not that it was much to go by – and issued with night gear and protective armour. Of course, if the perpetrator had left in a car or another vehicle it would all be pointless – noone could be sure even though anyone close to the scene denied hearing any vehicles after the incident. Even so, you could say Jordan had an ulterior motive – even as it was important to keep his mind on the _current_ case at hand.

Jordan and Maxine donned night gear themselves and Jordan headed out of town with Search Team North while Maxine went with Search Team West. He joined the line of searchers in their systematic search, each searching their area and moving together in a line, trying not to get too far ahead of each other. They were halfway through the large forest area to the West of the town when there were shouts and yells from the end of the line. Jordan stopped and turned, waited. Something had been found. Was it the perpetrator? A gun?

"Detective Rothwell!" A man came running up the line, flashlight bobbing with his motion and pulling off his night vision goggles. "We've discovered something unexpected. From what we could tell, it seems to be the skeletal remains of a human."

Jordan's eyebrows rose.

"Take me to see it." He commanded and the agent led the way down to where a group of men shone their torches at pile of half buried but obvious remains.

"I found it, sir." Another man who was slipping goggles back over his head grimaced. "I wasn't sure what it was with the goggles on so I stopped to see what it was with the flashlight. It looked suspicious so I looked closer to be on the safe side."

Jordan nodded. "Good work. I want a camera here immediately and more lights." He addressed the men, "There might not be much evidence here but there will always be a little bit, make sure no contamination happens, keep away from the scene. We probably need to get a Postmortem Interval so call the death scene CSI. Someone needs to call the ME and," he checked his watch, "Probably wake him up. After we get the all clear, get the remains gathered up and to the examination rooms so the ME can take a look at it there. You, you, you and you," he pointed to the four men who had found the remains first, "will stay here and help with whatever they need and the rest of the search team will spread out and continue."

"Yes, sir." The men replied and got to work.

Jordan called up Maxine on his cell and relayed the discovery to her, then stayed behind on the scene as the one of the first officers to preserve the trail of evidence as well as he could before another group came in and took over the crime scene.

The search teams continued searching the land and Maxine, having joined up with Search Team North with a couple of other officers to boost the numbers, went up to the Mayme residence at one point telling them what had happened and warning them of the searching of the area around their house. She noted that Mr Mayme and their two sons had returned home after a fishing trip, it would need to be confirmed, just in case.

"Any luck?" Jordan asked Maxine as they met up again back in front of the supermarket. She was looking through a list and scribbling on a notepad.

"None so far," she replied, "But we have people working on looking through CCTV footage and video from other cameras to see if we can get an image of the person or of where he went. They are also people looking up hotels and motels and looking through people who entered or left town today."

Jordan nodded. "Be sure to check the Mayme family car. They left for a fishing trip early in the morning and returned," he checked his watch, "about 2 hours ago."

"Done." Maxine said with a nod. "What about those remains, hey?"

Jordan nodded.

"Seems like it doesn't surprise you very much."

"I guess not," Jordan admitted.

"Why is that?"

"I had a hunch somewhat that a body might be somewhere around here. I probably also have a hunch I may know who our John, or Jane, Doe is." Jordan said with a shrug. "There's not been anyone recently disappeared from here who would end up dead."

"So you think it might be a past person or something? An unsolved case? Is there something you're working on? You're meant to let me know as a partner, you know."

She sure caught on. Jordan had a hunch the remains could be another useful clue for him, but of course, it was impossible to be sure until they were properly examined and they found out who it was. Still, it was alright to be hopeful.

"That's all I'm going to say," Jordan said with a shrug, "A hunch is just a hunch." and he started off to his car to visit the Medical Examiner, mentally listing the things he needed to complete.

"I bet it has to do with you going to the real estate, doesn't it?" Maxine shouted after him. "I'm going to find out what you're up to, Rothwell."

Jordan grinned back at her, "Good luck then, Peyton." He waved to her cheerfully and continued to his car.

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And so it begins.

Want to read more? Review and tell me what you thought or if you liked or disliked it, otherwise I'll be postponing the story indefinitely while I finish it off _completely_ first.

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